Pat Hentgen hasn’t pitched in over two weeks, and when he did, he didn’t pitch well, bereft of his starting catcher and closing out the season with back-to-back losses. But rusty or no, struggling or not, St. Louis will hand him the ball for tonight’s NLCS Game 5 against a team he’s never beaten in a game they need to have. And they claim they feel good about it.

He’ll have to be. Game 5 clearly will prove pivotal in this series, and the 31-year-old Hentgen will be going against lefty Mike Hampton, who humbled the Cardinals’ lineup in Game 1. After going 15-12 with a 4.72 ERA in 33 starts this year, Hentgen didn’t get a chance to pitch in the NLDS because St. Louis dispatched the Braves in three straight; and he’s clearly chomping at the bit to get at the Mets.

“It’s been tough. I’m a competitor. I like to pitch; I like to have the ball,” Hentgen said. “I understand we’re all in a situation where we have a lot of good pitchers. We’re here because of the fact we have a good pitching staff. It’s all right. [But] I’m anxious. I can’t wait.”

Hentgen threw on the side during the NLDS, and tossed a simulated game in St. Louis during the first round to stay sharp. But he understands live action is a different story altogether, and knows he’ll have to guard against first-inning rust.

“It’s been awhile. The big thing is, the first inning is a telling tale,” Hentgen said. “Most pitchers need to get a good rhythm. Starting pitchers have a tendency to give up runs in the beginning of innings. It’s tough.

“The biggest concern would be having real good life on your fastball and not being able to harness it in the strike zone. You get through the first couple of hitters, you start to get in a grove and good things’ll happen.”

Perhaps; perhaps not. Granted, after a 4-6 start, he closed out 11-6, but he’s got all sorts of history working against him. He struggled in his last start, an 8-4 loss to the Reds Sept. 30, after catcher Mike Mathey went down for the year. He claims he has faith in replacement Carlos Hernandez; but how much faith does he engender in himself during the postseason?

His last trip to the postseason was seven years ago with Toronto, when he went 1-1 with a fat 7.00 ERA. And he’s just 0-4 career with a fat 5.79 ERA, and 0-3 with a 4.24 ERA here at Shea. Still, La Russa claims to have confidence in him.

“You’ve got to be careful when they’re outwardly intense and disappear on you. Pat’s outwardly competitive, but he’s a competitor. We’ve seen it from spring training.

“He had a well-deserved track-record in Toronto. This guy is a terrific competitor,” La Russa said. “That’s [why] he does well in visiting parks. He’s not intimidated by the atmosphere of the other guy’s stadium. But when you see him, his emotions are on his sleeve.”